11 Mortgage Lead Providers Ohio Lenders Should Consider

Maybe you run a fairly compact mortgage lending operation out of Toledo or Akron. Maybe you have locations statewide, with offices in Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. Whatever the scale of your financial institution, though, you’re probably trying to be poised to strike as the homebuying iron gets hot. 

Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do here. You might invest in improving the lead generation tools on your website, adding options like customer rate dashboards or calculators. You might give your loan officers additional training to help them close leads. But as you’re exploring your opportunities here, you might also look into ways you can offload some of the work. 

Specifically, you might choose to invest some money into using an Ohio lead provider. If you choose the right one, that can mean getting pre-vetted, high-quality leads delivered straight to your loan officers’ desks. 

To understand how this option works and when it might benefit your mortgage lending institution, it helps to understand how Ohio lead providers fit into the statewide mortgage lending picture. So let’s start there. 

Evaluating the state of the Ohio mortgage industry

A couple of years ago, things weren’t looking great for Ohio mortgage lenders, brokers, and credit unions. Per the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, between Q2 2020 and Q4 2022, rates of homeownership dropped pretty notably. In fact, by the end of 2022, statewide homeownership rates had fallen below the national average for the first time. 

Fortunately, it looks like things are starting to turn around. 

As Ohio mortgage rates have trended downward in recent months, plenty of people who’ve been waiting to buy have finally started to explore their options. And with the recent federal funds rate slash announced by the Federal Reserve, more would-be homebuyers have started to explore their options. That’s true in cities like Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, and Akron, in suburban areas, and in smaller towns. 

That means your Ohio mortgage lending institution is in a prime position to see an uptick in business in the coming months. 

More good news: there’s plenty of room for you to maneuver here. Two lenders — US Bank and Pennymac Home Loans — are responsible for about 5% of the loans originated statewide. Other than that, though, no financial institution takes up more than 1% of the market. 

That means that if you position your lending operation well and tap into the right opportunities, you should be able to carve out the meaningful segment of the market that you need to succeed. That, of course, is easier said than done. That’s where Ohio mortgage lead providers come in.

These companies generally have their own audiences — often numbering in the millions. They stand to benefit by capturing some of that audience in the form of a lead and passing that on to you in exchange for some money. Your lending company stands to benefit from getting access to leads you otherwise wouldn’t, particularly because these leads are generally high-intent potential borrowers. 

Using Ohio mortgage lead providers

Lead providers in Ohio can be a huge asset when used properly. They’re not all quality options, though. In an effort to ensure any money you invest into this opportunity sees optimal returns, you want to choose a trusted lead source. 

We have a few recommendations for Ohio mortgage lead providers:

#1: NerdWallet

You might have seen some NerdWallet ads running on TV lately. The company has amped up its advertising efforts, positioning itself as a go-to source for personal finance expertise. And that means when people are researching mortgages, they might end up at NerdWallet. In fact, per NerdWallet’s estimates, 30 million people already visit the site a year. 

That presents an opportunity for generating Ohio mortgage leads. 

NerdWallet has features on its site that allows people to evaluate options from specific lenders. If you feature your company’s rates on a NerdWallet rate comparison table, for example, a potential borrower might click on your company there. Because they’re already doing the work to explore their loan options and they’ve already expressed interest in your company by clicking you, they’re a warm lead ripe for one of your loan officers to close. 

NerdWallet also features a “Best Of” section that includes overviews of lending institutions that partner with them. You can explore becoming one of these lenders, which means getting a featured article on the NerdWallet site. There, you can showcase your loan offerings and what sets you apart. 

#2: LendingTree

LendingTree runs a website similar to NerdWallet’s, but it’s a more affordable option than some other Ohio mortgage lead providers. That’s because the leads you can get from LendingTree are nonexclusive. In other words, your team might get a lead, but so might a competitor. 

Still, because the cost per lead is lower, this can be a savvy option, particularly if your team is ready to act fast. If your loan officers are highly responsive and can get that lead on the phone before any competitors, you significantly increase your likelihood of closing that loan. 

#3–11: More Ohio mortgage lead providers to consider

We outlined two options to give you a feel for what to expect, but NerdWallet and LendingTree are far from your only choices here. In fact, we have nine more lead providers worth evaluating. 

With any option on that list, the cost per lead generally increases based on the likelihood that lead will close. If you have an advertising budget and your loan officers have limited bandwidth, you may want to explore Ohio mortgage lead providers who thoroughly vet leads before handing them over. Those leads will be higher cost but more likely to result in a closed loan. 

Or if you’d rather minimize your investment here until you see if it works for your team, some lead generation options come with lower costs per lead. Those contacts generally require more from your loan officers in order to get them to the closing table, but it can be a good way to start to keep your upfront investment smaller.

Clearly, there’s a lot to consider here. 

Want help? Book some time with our team. Because we specialize in tools that help mortgage lenders generate, capture, and close leads, we’ve directly worked with a lot of the biggest lead providers in the game. Whether you’re in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, or anywhere else in the Buckeye State, we can help you narrow down your choices. For support identifying the right Ohio mortgage lead providers for your specific company, get in touch. 

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